Juveniles
Juveniles was an intended cartoon series created by Elliot Strange. He pitched it to Nickelodeon, who agreed to help fund it, but they rejected his original pilot, refusing to air it. Strange returned with a second one, and while it was cleared to air, creative differences prompted Strange to take the rights to the pilots with him. The shorts were produced by Gecko Studios in association with The DGT Partnership for Better Property Management and Equity. Summary The series would've centered on a group of four friends who frequently get into trouble at school, all while combating boredom as they go about their days in Muskego, Wisconsin. The group is made up of Victor, a unibrowed mischievous boy, Julie, a punk-rock enthusiast with a heart of gold, Jupiter, a bubbly naive girl and Corky, a wannabe who hangs with the three to get more info on them. They contend with their Principal, Mr. Rainer, a no-nonsense yet eccentric individual. A second pilot introduced another character, Bernadette, a smug sarcastic girl. Pilot 1 It begins with Victor riding his bike to school and getting reprimanded by his teacher, leading to him telling her (and the viewer by default) who he is, while introducing the rest of the cast. The episode begins with Victor talking to Jupiter about how Principal Rainer hasn't shown up for four days straight. Jupiter heard the news but wasn't able to confirm it because she didn't go into his office. She is too scared to do it, something that applies to Victor as well. Corky comes along, having been shoved into a trash can and rolled down the hall, and hears about what happened. He's also too afraid to go into the office. The three go over their experiences with Rainer. Victor complains about how Rainer gave him detention for no reason after Victor broke a vending machine. Jupiter claims that she learned how electricity worked, which was actually a harsh punishment given by Rainer where he had her stick metal into an active outlet. This is cut short by Julie who arrives and gets clued in on what's happening. She attempts to prove Rainer is alive, but she chickens out like the rest of them. The four theorize on what happened to Rainer, but they soon lose faith in their theories. They come to the conclusion that he was secretly trying to help them all along, but that he went about it the wrong way. Victor proceeds to mock Rainer's more extreme disciplinary methods, just as Rainer comes in, claiming to have been asleep in his office for the past four days. Pilot 2: Snack Attack Victor, Corky, Julie, Jupiter and (newcomer) Bernadette are discussing the candy bars they bought recently. This is interrupted by an announcer promoting a new candy bar. The kids are uninterested, preferring their own. The announcer then brings on a celebrity spokesperson to promote the product, but he is unable to keep it together in spite of his persistence. The kids are driven away from the candy bar even further and the spokesperson seeks to get them into it by engaging in sports, with bad results since the excess candy rendered his bones brittle and obese. The spokesman is shocked to find the kids have lost interest in even their own candy bars, preferring to eat burgers instead. The announcer and spokesman make a last-ditch effort to get the kids to buy something of theirs by promoting a new drink, but the spokesman goes through the same problems as the candy bar. The end reveals that this was an advert for the burger joint the kids are eating at, with the kids doing the closing promotional spiel. Cast Principal * Billy West: Victor * Marcus Toji: Corky * Tara Sands: Julie * Olivia Hack: Jupiter * Danielle Judovits: Bernadette (pilot 2) Other Actors *: Pilot 1 **: Pilot 2 * Mike Judge: Announcer** * Aries Spears: Spokesman** * Charles Rocket: Principal* * Phil LaMarr: Glan* * Mo Collins: Teacher* * Michael McDonald: Guy on TV* * Will Forte: Guy on TV* Trivia * The characters would appear in Strange's later series The Halloween Kids: Next Generation, and before then Strange maintained ownership of his characters through an agreement where Nickelodeon would get the rights to it had they agreed to make the short into the series or broadcast it on their network. * Tara Sands appears in the pilots as the voice of Julie. Interestingly she returns in The Halloween Kids: Next Generation to voice Ruth and Anita. Strange mandated this because he wanted to rework Julie's character and felt Sands' depiction wasn't right for the role anymore. * A majority of the actors would go on to/have worked on later/older Nickelodeon shows. ** Billy West was a principal actor on The Red and Stimpy Show. ** Marcus Toji and Olivia Hack have voiced characters on Hey Arnold!. ** Danielle Judovits has also did work for Hey Arnold!, as well as Kablam!. ** Mo Collins provided her voice for at least two characters on Invader Zim and portrayed iTeacher on Ned's Declassified: School Survival Guide. ** Michael McDonald went on to do work for Invader Zim and, more recently, The Loud House. * The characters notably look and act different than they would in their more famous appearances. ** Victor is mostly the same but doesn't come to ridiculous conclusions on certain situations. His attire remained the same. ** Corky speaks often, he later became a mute. His attire was changed to include a grey hoodie. ** Julie is mostly unchanged in her personality, but her physical appearance was changed. She is shown to be somewhat chubby and has a grey highlight in her hair, along with bangs that cover her right eye and has a snaggletooth. Her hair bun also looks a lot sharper and sticks up more. ** Jupiter's accent is normal. Interestingly she has the same voice actor in the show that she has in the pilot, Olivia Hack. Jupiter's hair is also pure white, while her better known appearance also includes faint black highlights. Follow-Ups A separate pilot containing the same characters was released in 1998, under the name Muskies. It would indirectly serve as an early pilot to The Halloween Kids: Next Generation.